Hong Kong artists bemoan high cost of renting new venue in West Kowloon Cultural District, but officials say HK$63,000 weekly rent is reasonable
- New facility will be second landmark performing venue after Xiqu Centre
- Site will feature one of the city’s biggest black box theatres
The long-awaited contemporary performance venue at Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District will open next month, but there are fears the cost of using it could drive away local medium and small arts groups.
The new facility, Freespace, will be the second landmark performing venue after Xiqu Centre, welcoming guest at the arts hub, featuring multi-genre shows performed by local and international artists including the well-established Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, and Oscar-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in its first year.
Duncan Pescod, CEO of the district’s authority, said the site, which will feature one of the city’s biggest black box auditoriums, would be a casual and creative space, and was built with the city’s younger generation in mind.
“All of these spaces, we want young people to really colonise and make their own,” he said.
The new facility is part of the HK$21.6 billion development of the cultural district, with other infrastructure such as the M+ visual culture museum, and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which are expected to open by 2021 and 2022 respectively. The Chinese opera theatre, Xiqu Centre, opened in January.
It consists of one black box theatre, The Box, a bar or cafe for live music, and multipurpose spaces for small-scale events.
Artistic groups planning to stage a show at The Box, which can seat up to 450 people or accommodate 900 standing, will have to pay a rent of at least HK$6,000 for nine hours, or HK$9,000 for 14 hours for performances.
But other charges such as overnight set up or take down are not included. The authority will also share 10 per cent of gross box office receipts.
Opinion: Xiqu Centre a feather in the cap for Hong Kong
Louis Yu Kwok-lit, performing arts executive director at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, said the cost of renting The Box was fair for such a new venue.
“It’s very affordable given the uniqueness of our venue,” he said.
Pescod said the theatre was “more or less” fully booked in 2019, but he promised the authority would study a possibility of sponsoring the cost of renting the venue in the future.
Well-known local dance group, City Contemporary Dance Company has entered a partnership scheme with the venue for three years, and its managing director Raymond Wong Kwok-wai said the arrangement would allow them to rent the space for two weeks each year at a discounted price.
It was precious to be offered the time slot because typically venues managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department only allowed groups to rent for a week, he said.
Gladys Wong Yee-mun, founder of The Radiant Theatre, said the Box was more expensive than other existing performing sites provided by the government, but it would still be reasonable.
If a group wanted to use the West Kowloon theatre for a week, it would need to pay around HK$63,000, but on average government venues charge between HK$30,000 and HK$40,000, she said.
However, it would still be cheaper than other private performing venues, such as the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, she added.
“For those who have been renting these private venues, it would be a good thing because it can provide them with another option,” she said.
Still, some artists have said they would not be able to afford the new facilities and called for performers to be subsidised or receive discounts. Their demands came after a number of Chinese opera groups said rents at the Xiqu Centre were too high.
West Kowloon Cultural District is a deserving home for the arts in Hong Kong
Wendy Cheng Hiu-lam, a saxophonist who usually hosts one or two ensemble performances each year in the city, said even renting The Room, a roughly 150 sqm space at the new site would be too expensive.
She said renting the theatre at the Hong Kong City Hall for eight hours would only cost HK$3,855 on a concessionary rate. But The Room would cost at least HK$4,800.
She said she would only consider booking it if it had an excellent acoustic quality.
“It’s quite disappointing. Maybe it’s treating it as a private venue. But even for a private one, I think it’s a bit costly too,” she said.
Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying, chairwoman of Hong Kong Culture Monitor, said typical small groups would find the cost a big burden even if the venue was worth the cost.
“If an arts group was just growing, or if it was just performing a less popular script or art form, then the government would have to play a role to help and subsidise them to some extent,” she said.
